Uncle Noah's Christmas Inspiration eBook

“I’se not askin’ foh charity, Miss,”
he averred stubbornly. “I’se a-sellin’
sumthin’. I reckons if yoh buy me, Miss,
an’ yoh lemme go back an’ stay Christmas
wif ol’ Massa, I’ll sell maself cheap.
Yoh see I’se a-plannin’ first to buy
a turkey whut’ll take Job’s place on de
platter, an’ den to give de Massa a gran’
Christmas wif de rest o’ de money what I gits
foh maself, savin’ out jus’ enough to buy
ma ol’ turkey an’ come to yoh first day
after Christmas. It’ll be hard to leave
ol’ Massa and Mis’, but I reckons it’s
jus’ gotta be done.”

Uncle Noah gulped and blinked, and there was a glimmer
of wet lashes about the warm gray eyes that had won
his heart.

The girl was silent so long that Uncle Noah shifted
uneasily; but at last she spoke a little tremulously.
“For what price will you sell yourself?”
she asked, and Uncle Noah never doubted but that she
regarded the purchase in the same light in which he
himself had viewed it.

He turned about for his purchaser’s thorough
inspection, his bald head above the fringe of white
wool about it glistening in the lamplight. “Do
yoh think I’se wuth, say, twenty-five dollahs?”
he queried, regarding her fixedly over his spectacles.

The girl touched her throat with an unconscious gesture.
“Yes, you are,” she cried impulsively;
“you are indeed!” And before Uncle Noah
had quite time to adjust himself to the joy of his
unique sale the girl thrust a roll of bills into his
hands and disappeared through the station door.

IV

Christmas Intrigue

IV

Uncle Noah hobbled after her. His new mistress
had quite forgotten to tell him where to deliver himself
when his Christmas with the Colonel was over.
But when he reached the door she was eagerly greeting
a man who had just alighted from a waiting carriage.
Uncle Noah could but dimly see him, but as the genial
voice reached his ears he halted in the shadow quite
content. It was Major Verney. The fact
that the Colonel’s old friend and neighbor had
driven in from Fernlands to meet the radiant lady
whose great gray eyes, Uncle Noah now recalled, had
had the Verney look which endeared the owner of Fernlands
to all who knew him, seemed to the watching negro
a direct interposition of Providence. A scant
mile of cottonfields lay between the two plantations,
and, Christmas over, Uncle Noah had but to trudge across
the fields to deliver himself to the Major’s
guest.